Gay Phillies fans
aren't happy at banner
3 for 3: 3rd annual
'Gay Day' brings 3rd year of protests
By WILLIAM BUNCH,
phillynews.com from the Web, August 20, 2005
IT MAY have been the Phillies' annual
Gay Day at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday night, but that doesn't mean that
everybody was happy with how everything turned out.
Larry Felzer, the Philadelphia attorney who first organized the annual gay event
at the ballpark in 2003, yesterday questioned whether the Phillies' were
following their official policy in allowing a banner that read:
"Homosexuality Is Sin. Christ Can Set You Free."
One of the two men who held the sign, Repent America founder Michael Marcavage,
said he's still upset that the Phillies have an event that appears to endorse
homosexuality, although he did say the team "had a political agenda shoved in
their face."
And Michael Stiles, the team's operations vice president, said he found the
Repent America message "offensive," but he also believes that the group has a
constitutional right to express its opinion at the taxpayer-funded ballpark.
A full day after the last boos from the Phillies' 5-4 loss to the Washington
Nationals' had subsided, the debate over Gay Day, Repent America, and the banner
that it displayed in the right-field upper deck raged on, especially on talk
radio.
About 850 fans bought tickets through the organizers of Gay Day, which featured
the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus singing the national anthem and Cyd Ziegler,
co-founder of Outsports.com, throwing out the ceremonial first ball.
This was the third time that the Phillies held the gay event, and the third time
that the locally based Repent America -- which gained national headlines after
members were arrested at a 2004 gay pride event in Philadelphia -- has shown up
to protest.
Thursday night, there was a minor ruckus at the ballpark. Some fans tried
to block the view of the Repent America banner, located in Section 303, and both
Philadelphia Civil Affairs cops and Phillies' security separated the groups.
Actually, the flare-up was arguably tamer than in past years. In 2003,
when the Phillies still played at Veterans Stadium, the team ordered Repent
America to take down the sign. And after a similar disturbance last year,
fans on both sides of the issue were ejected from the park.
Still, some fans wondered how the ballclub that just three years ago made a fan
take down a sign blasting lackadaisical first baseman Travis Lee with the words
"Travis Leeve" could now permit a sign condemning gays as sinners.
Organizer Felzer's criticisms were more pointed. He noted that the
Phillies' most recent policy on banners bars them if it "contains 'fighting
words' likely to provoke a breach of the peace."
"If you have to have law enforcement there to prevent something from happening,
that -- in my opinion -- is a breach of the peace," Felzer said.
But the Phillies' Stiles noted that the team has changed its banner policy since
the "Travis Leeve" controversy and the first Gay Day the following year.
The new policy is more liberal.
"I think it is offensive," Stiles said of the message promulgated by Repent
America. But he said "it's pretty clear legally" that by giving the gay
community a platform such as Gay Day, that "the First Amendment would require us
to allow an opposing point of view."
But there were a number of letters back and forth between lawyers for Repent
America and for the Phillies before it was clear that the team would allow the
sign to be displayed.
Despite a largely negative reaction on talk radio yesterday, Marcavage said it
was a victory for his group this year to display the sign and to not be ejected.
An item on Repent America's Web site yesterday was headlined: "Phillies
Lose, Christians Win"
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